I live in Canada, and have had my car in storage for a couple of years. We had our first real heat this past week (>25C) and I unfortunately learned that my A/C is weak/non-existant.
Despite owning an B5 A4 that was 18 years old, and a 13 yr old Tiguan - Neither required any work done to their A/C in the entire time I owned them.
It looks to me like the car might just be a bit low on refrigerant, posting it here for a second opinion before getting it checked out.
- After leaving the car in the garage all night. Car Off.
- 3.0 Bar seems right.
- Started the car, set temp to 16C and fan to Mid/"4".
- Evap immediately started to drop and pressure started to rise.
- Car running for 5 minutes. The Evap temperature dropped down to 16C approx 1 min after starting the car, and then the temperature gradually starting to rise again.
- Pressure bounced between 9.5 and 10.0 bar.
- Vent temp was stable at 24C (Drop of 2C from initial)
- Immediately after turning the car off again.
- Pressure dropped quickly.
A couple of notes:
1. I don't have A/C gauges, since I've never needed them before. So ISTA was the best I could do right now.
2. You cannot buy R134A in Canada, only licensed dealers are authorized to refill. You can buy R12 in a store, but I'd prefer not to mix coolants.